Teen calls on schools to include ASL as foreign language option
WISE, Va. — High school junior Gabe Ringley studies building trades, participates in 4-H and hopes to become an athletic trainer.
But first, Ringley wants to see more people learn American Sign Language.
As part of a recent presentation by county 4-H students to the Wise County School Board, Ringley made the pitch for including ASL as an option for students’ foreign language requirements for graduation.
Ringley comes to his presentation from lifelong experience.
“I learned sign language when I was six months old,” Ringley said of his experience raised by his mother — a hearing child of his deaf grandparents, Kenny and Ida Potter.
“Sign language was actually my mother’s first language,” said Ringley. “My grandparents helped her adapt to a hearing environment by buying a television so she could watch ‘Sesame Street’ to learn to talk.”
Ringley recommended that anyone wanting to get an idea of being a hearing child in a deaf environment should watch the film “CODA”
“It stands for child of a deaf adult, and my mother says it was very accurate,” said Ringley.
When Ringley and fellow 4-H students from the Wise and Norton area were getting ready to attend the state 4-H Congress earlier this year, he said everyone started thinking of topics for their presentations. 4-H extension office representative LeAnn Hill knew about his interest in sign language and deaf issues, he added, and she recommended he start from there.
“I’ve watched Gabe grow in the 4-H program from a little boy into a young man,” said Hill. “For him to step out and be a deaf advocate is impressive. I told him it’s something you know, are comfortable with and passionate about.”
There are 35 different types of sign language in the U.S., Ringley said, ranging from pidgin signing that people unfamiliar with formal sign language can use to home signs where a deaf person not trained in formal sign language can use basically charade gestures to get across their meaning.
American Sign Language uses a combination of specific, standard gestures and some spelling, Ringley explained, but it is different from spoken language in how it uses grammar. Many of the signs are like colloquialisms in English, where the sign is an idea that represents a phonetic word.
Ringley credited his English teacher, Rachel Shuler, with helping edit his presentation.
“She said she didn’t know how much there was to know about sign language and the deaf community until she started reading my presentation,” Ringley added.
Besides helping him communicate with his grandparents, Ringley said sign language also comes in handy at loud events such as sports.
“Mom and I were at a basketball game once, and we were sitting in different parts of the bleachers but we were talking with all the noise going on around us,” Ringley said. “You don’t have to be right next to each other to have a conversation.”
Sign language can convey emotions as well as spoken language does, Ringley said.
“They do show their emotions through their signs, how fast they are signing and their facial expressions,” said Ringley.
Making American Sign Language a foreign language option in schools not only improves communication skills, Ringley said, but it can help integrate deaf persons into the community.
“I want people to stop viewing deafness as a limitation, and I would like to see deaf students mainstreamed in regular classes,” Ringley said. “Deaf people can still do everything other people can do. They just lost one of their senses and have adapted to compensate.”